Live updates

Daisy Organ, head of the Child Abduction Section at the FCO, has told Daybreak that for parents whose children have been abducted to countries that are not members of the Hague Convention "face a long and distressing process to get them back."

The increase in parental child abduction cases is a major cause for concern, particularly in the lead-up to the school holidays; we know that before or during school holidays is one of the most common times for a child to be abducted.

We hope that this campaign will help inform and educate the UK public and encourage parents thinking of abducting their child to think twice before they cause significant distress to themselves and their family.

If a child has been taken to a country that has not signed the Hague Convention parents may need to apply for custody and permission to bring their child back to the UK through the courts of that country.

In Scotland, abduction may only be considered a criminal offence where the courts have issued an order concerning custody of the child or their removal from the UK, but a parent may still have rights under civil law.

Cases of parental child abduction have risen 88% in just under a decade (2003-2012), Foreign Office (FCO) figures showed today.

It is against the law for a parent to take a child overseas without permission from others with parental responsibility, but nearly a quarter of Britons (24%) are unaware it is a crime, the figures showed.

The FCO's child abduction section received an average of four calls a day between October 2011 and September 2012, according to the figures.